What if a man-made virus with the power to melt all plastic became as infectious as the common cold? When a plane crashes in South America, in quite extrodinary circumstances, it's up to Dr Quist's team to avert further disaster.
Doctor Quist and Doomwatch become embroiled in an inquiry into the heart-transplanting practices of Doctor Patrick. Several uncomfortable questions are raised: what has he been doing to a newborn baby that has been placed in his care, and should genetic engineering be permitted in society?
When a lifeboat crew discovers a luxury cruiser adrift in the English Channel, they find on board are a group of wealthy pop stars and their girlfriends, one of whom is dead. Doomwatch investigate, and discover that the death was not from drug abuse as was previously suspected; instead they begin to uncover the facts behind the dumping of a deadly chemical warfare compound in a deep sea trench, which seems to be far from dormant.
Genetic engineering? Tampering with nature in a quest to make Superman? The experimentation is still only being carried out on rats, but with dangerous, and deadly results...
The time is fast approaching when a person's entire history - educational, medical, criminal, even financial - may end up as a foot of computer tape in some impenetrable central file. Worse still, a man's future career may depend upon the computer's evaluation. This week the Doomwatch team fall under the baleful eye of a newly established security section.
A new, nuclear-powered rocket is being tested, with the first British astronaut aboard. The smallest error could turn it into a flying nuclear bomb spreading radioactive fallout over a wide area of Europe. And an error does occur.
Four strangely dressed young ladies wearing a checker board patterned miniskirt and silver tights ambush two City Gents with a tray of sweets which they eagerly sample...
A land rover pulls up underneath a light house high up on a cliff overlooking the English channel. Bernard Colley and his daughter Dana sees their friend Captain Tommy Gort coming out of the building to greet them – they think. But instead he is lurching, a haunted expression on his face towards the edge of the cliff. The Colleys are horrified. 'Why the hell isn't Quist here?' says Bernard. They run after him but they are too late. Gort stops at the edge of the cliff, clutching his head in pain. Inevitably, he topples over and plunges to his death.
In order to decide on new proposals for dealing with the dangers of pollution on the environment, Doctor Quist assembles a conference amongst the world's top scientists. But soon several of the delegates become ill, apparently from food-poisoning. However, Quist becomes suspicious, and suspects that the sickness may have been caused deliberately.
A small boy runs across a field into a forest, snapping a stick of a tree as he goes. Stick in hand he pauses by a tree to catch his breath while looking around the forest. He hears a noise from the tree above which scares him and he runs off. He sees a squirrel in the tree and throws the stick at it and hides behind another tree. He makes his way up the tree trying to reach the squirrel he threw the stick at. As he gets close the animal falls stiffly from the tree. The squirrel lies dead on the forest floor....
Tough ex-miners in South Wales drinking gin instead of the traditional beer, giving their wives the cold shoulder and secretly turning to cock-fighting. It all sounds wildly out of character to Dr Quist and his team, who investigate despite the fact that all this is taking place in the Minister's own constituency.
In an effort to prevent unofficial strikes by its workforce, a company in the North of England decides to use the latest scientific discovery, and attempts to manipulate both the working and the private lives of its employees by bugging them with listening devices. However, when Quist hears of this underhanded practice he is furious and decides that the only way to stop the unethical management is to turn their own method against them.
A military plane ditches into the sea whilst carrying three nuclear weapons on board. While the RAF mounts a search mission, an unidentified object is washed up on the shore near Byfield pier on the south coast of England. It is found by two men, Geoff Harker and Sam Billings, who decide that it must be a weather detecting device, and so begin to strip it down for parts. Toby is sent to investigate the device, but he soon finds himself faced with the terrifying prospect of disarming a very live bomb.